NAME String::Sections - Extract labeled groups of sub-strings from a string. VERSION version 0.2.3 SYNOPSIS use String::Sections; my $sections = String::Sections->new(); my $result = $sections->load_list( @lines ); # TODO # $sections->load_string( $string ); # $sections->load_filehandle( $fh ); # # $sections->merge( $other_sections_object ); my @section_names = $result->section_names(); if ( $result->has_section( 'section_label' ) ) { my $string_ref = $result->section( 'section_label' ); ... } DESCRIPTION Data Section sports the following default data markup __[ somename ]__ Data __[ anothername ]__ More data This module is designed to behave as a work-alike, except on already extracted string data. METHODS new new( %args ) my $object = String::Sections->new(); my $object = String::Sections->new( attribute_name => 'value' ); load_list ( @strings ) my @strings = <$fh>; my $result = $string_section->load_list( @strings ); This method handles data as if it had been slopped in unchomped from a filehandle. Ideally, each entry in @strings will be terminated with $/ , as the collated data from each section is concatenated into a large singular string, e.g.: $result = $string_section->load_list("__[ Foo ]__\n", "bar\n", "baz\n" ); $section_foo = $result->section('Foo') # bar # baz $result = $s_s->load_list("__[ Foo ]__\n", "bar", "baz" ); $result->section('Foo'); # barbaz $object->load_list("__[ Foo ]__", "bar", "baz" ) # will not work by default. This behaviour may change in the future, but this is how it is with the least effort for now. load_string TODO load_filehandle( $fh ) my $result = $object->load_filehandle( $fh ) header_regex empty_line_regex document_end_regex line_escape_regex default_name stop_at_end ignore_empty_prelude enable_escapes ATTRIBUTES header_regex empty_line_regex document_end_regex line_escape_regex default_name stop_at_end ignore_empty_prelude enable_escapes PRIVATE METHODS __add_line _default_header_regex _default_empty_line_regex _default_document_end_regex _default_line_escape_regex _default_default_name _default_stop_at_end _default_ignore_empty_prelude _default_enable_escapes PRIVATE FUNCTIONS _croak _isa_regexp _isa_boolean _isa_boolean _regex_type _string_type _boolean_type DEVELOPMENT This code is still new and under development. All the below facets are likely to change at some point, but don't largely contribute to the API or usage of this module. * Needs Perl 5.10.1 To make some of the development features easier. Recommended Use with Data::Handle This modules primary inspiration is Data::Section, but intending to split and decouple many of the internal parts to add leverage to the various behaviors it contains. Data::Handle solves part of a problem with Perl by providing a more reliable interface to the __DATA__ section in a file that is not impeded by various things that occur if its attempted to be read more than once. In future, I plan on this being the syntax for connecting Data::Handle with this module to emulate Data::Section: my $dh = Data::Handle->new( __PACKAGE__ ); my $ss = String::Sections->new( stop_at_end => 1 ); my $result = $ss->load_filehandle( $dh ); This doesn't implicitly perform any of the inheritance tree magic Data::Section does, but its also planned on making that easy to do when you want it with "->merge( $section )" For now, the recommended code is not so different: my $dh = Data::Handle->new( __PACKAGE__ ); my $ss = String::Sections->new( stop_at_end => 1 ); my $result = $ss->load_list( <$dh> ); Its just somewhat less efficient. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES Since 0.1.x API In 0.1.x, "API" was my $section = String::Sections->new(); $section->load_*( $source ); $section->section_names This was inherently fragile, and allowed weird things to occur when people tried to get data from it without it being populated yet. So starting with 0.2.0, the "API" is my $section = String::Sections->new(); my $result = $section->load_*( $source ); $result->section_names; And the main class is a factory for "String::Sections::Result" objects. AUTHOR Kent Fredric COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Kent Fredric . This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.